A whopping 23 guests spoke at a packed Civic Hall launch event last night, beginning with New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer and closing with the CEO of Do Something, Nancy Lublin. Speakers included representatives from financial supporters Microsoft, Google and the Omidyar Network, as well as from Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo's administrations.

Picture “a screwdriver that could turn back the effects on climate change” or a “level for leveling social injustice.” Science fiction? No: the inspiration for an exhibit at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. The artists, all first-year MFA students in the Design for Social Innovation program, were asked to create tools to solve social problems.

This month Civic Hall, the new home for civic tech in New York City, opened its doors to beta members like Simone Rothman, the founder and CEO of FutureAir. Beta members are people working in the civic tech space who have been invited to try out Civic Hall for the month of January: to work in the space and see what it is like, and in turn provide feedback to the Civic Hall team. We caught up with Rothman to ask about her work and find out what she hopes to see and do here at Civic Hall. Read More

This month Civic Hall, the new home for civic tech in New York City, opened its doors to beta members like Jeanne Brooks, executive director of Hacks/Hackers. Beta members are people working in the civic tech space who have been invited to try out Civic Hall for the month of January: to work in the space and see what it is like, and in turn provide feedback to the Civic Hall team. We caught up with Brooks to ask about her work and find out what she hopes to see and do here at Civic Hall. Read More

Front Porch Forum creates online communities for real-life neighborhoods. We have an excerpt about FPF from Allison Fine's new book, Matterness, and an interview with the founder, Michael Wood-Lewis. Read More

This month Civic Hall, the new home for civic tech in New York City, opened its doors to beta members like Erin Vilardi, the founder of VoteRunLead. Beta members are people working in the civic tech space who have been invited to try out Civic Hall for the month of January: to work in the space and see what it is like, and in turn provide feedback to the Civic Hall team. We caught up with Vilardi to ask about her work and find out what she hopes to see and do here at Civic Hall. Read More

This month Civic Hall, the new home for civic tech in New York City, opened its doors to beta members like Tim Karr, of Free Press. Beta members are people working in the civic tech space who have been invited to try out Civic Hall for the month of January: to work in the space and see what it is like, and in turn provide feedback to the Civic Hall team. We caught up with Karr to ask him about his work and find out what he hopes to see and do here at Civic Hall. Read More

NationBuilder officially launched in 2011, and, since then, it has grown from a start-up to a company that employs 70 people and from a beta platform to one used by over 1,000 organizations—from civic activists to gelato shops—to find new members, track their involvement, and then encourage them to meet in person. In 2014, NationBuilder’s customers used the platform to raise over $200 million and to recruit nearly 900,000 new volunteers.

The grand jury tasked with deciding whether to indict the officer who shot and killed Michael Brown heard 70 hours of testimony. The 60 witnesses and three medical examiners gave conflicting accounts about Brown’s last minutes. Ultimately, the grand jury opted not to indict. Their decision left many asking: What if there was a video? What if there was better oversight of police misconduct? Was Michael Brown a unique tragedy or part of a larger trend? The ACLU’s Mobile Justice App and Five-0 are technologies that will hopefully help answer these questions and protect communities from police misconduct.